Pipelight is project that brings Silverlight to any Linux browser that supports the Netscape Plugin API. Using it, you can use services that require Silverlight, such as Netflix, in native Linux web browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Midori.

Pipelight combines the effort by Erich E. Hoover (the Netflix Desktop developer) with a new browser plugin which - unlike Netflix Desktop which requires a Windows version of Firefox to run under Wine -, lets you access services that require Microsoft Silverlight using native Linux web browsers.

This solution isn't Wine-free because the browser plugin continues to use Wine however, this shouldn't have a big impact on performance:

"Pipelight consists out of two parts: A Linux library which is loaded into the browser and a Windows program started in Wine. The Windows program, called pluginloader.exe, simply simulates a browser and loads the Silverlight DLLs. When you open a page with a Silverlight application the library will send all commands from the browser through a pipe to the Windows process and act like a bridge between your browser and Silverlight. The used pipes do not have any big impact on the speed of the rendered video since all the video and audio data is not send through the pipe. Only the initialization parameters and (sometimes) the network traffic is send through them."

According to the Pipelight website, the plugin has been confirmed to work "almost perfectly" using Microsoft Silverlight 5 for the following websites: Maxdome, Netflix and Sumo 2.

I've tested Pipelight with Netflix, under Chrome (Ubuntu 13.10) and I can confirm it works (and the playback was smooth!), as you can see in the screenshots in this article. Update: I've also tested it with Firefox and it works, but sometimes the browser freezes, something which doesn't happen with Chrome so I recommend using Chrome / Chromium with Pipelight.

Then, you can install the Silverlight plugin using the following command:
- system-wide:

sudo pipelight-plugin --enable silverlight

- for your user only:

pipelight-plugin --enable silverlight

By default, this will install Silverlight 5.1, but you can install a different version, for instane 5.0, by using this command instead (don't use "sudo" if you don't want to install it system-wide):

sudo pipelight-plugin --disable silverlight --enable silverlight5.0

Once installed, start your browser and try THIS test Silverlight applet. If it doesn't work, check if Silverlight is available in your browser plugin list (e.g.: you can type "about:plugins" in the address bar).

Update 1: Pipelight now also supports installing the Windows version of Adobe Flash. To install the Windows version of Adobe Flash, use this command:

- system-wide

sudo pipelight-plugin --enable flash

- for your user only:

pipelight-plugin --enable flash

Update 2: Pipelight now supports Widevine. To enable Widevine, use the command below:

- system-wide:

sudo pipelight-plugin --enable widevine

- for your user only:

pipelight-plugin --enable widevine

If you didn't close the browser before proceeding with the installation and Silverlight doesn't work, run the following command:

rm -rf ~/.wine-pipelight/

and then restart the browser.Update 3: Pipelight now also supports installing the ViewRight Caiway plugin and the Vizzed RGR plugin.

2. We're not done yet. Silverlight should be working now, but some websites such as Netflix check the browser user agent and won't allow you to play any videos since Linux isn't supported. A work-around for this is to use a browser user agent switcher: